New comment system on this site – try it out!

We are currently testing out a new commenting system on this site, powered by Intense Debate. You can now have the ability to create “threads” out of comments, which is basically a reply feature. Instead of copying and pasting comments for replies like many of us have done previously, now can now simply “Post a Reply” to someone’s comment. A reply will be displayed right after the previous comment and indented so it looks like a reply. Further replies to replies will be further indented, I’m sure you get the drift.

You can also post a regular comment of course. Adding your own avatars should also be easier to do with this new system. You can also “vote” on other people’s comments – this will allow you to vote down pointless or sensitive comments. You can also report defamatory or ISA-magnet comments easily via the report function. Pages with hundreds of comments will now have their comment pagination (split into a few pages) so the comments will be faster to load and easier to navigate/read.

Do you like it or do you prefer the old system?

UPDATE: I see that some of you like it and some of you don’t. I’ll try to solve all of your questions about how the new system works over the next 2-3 days, if its still too uncomfortable then I’ll revert back to the old system. I have replied to some of your complaints in the comments of this post, please check and reply me if you can, I’m trying to work out all the problems.

After dabbling for years in the IT industry, Paul Tan initially began this site as a general blog covering various topics of personal interest. With an increasing number of readers paying rapt attention to the motoring stories, one thing led to another and the rest, as they say, is history. An avid electronic gadget aficionado as well as big-time coffee lover, he's also the executive producer of the Driven motoring TV programme.

very nice paul.. cool stuff.. I like it a lot!!! the only thing is, because of the character limit on nicks, i couldnt fit my B.M.W. nick in hahaha… and i'm sure those who use to use "sentences" as their nicks would be rather disappointed also.

I may be mistaken since I am also new to this system, but I think the character limit only applies to usernames. After that you can set another "Name" which will appear in comments under your IntenseDebate profile.

As I understand, you only have to key in your name once then the system will remember your name. Please let me know if this is not the behaviour you are experiencing so I can go complain! :P And also take into account the problem in my decision whether to keep this system or revert to the old system.

Paul, do you know the car designers behind proton's mysterious r&d doors?
Just wondering, since I noticed that proton designers are not well known, and that fact is making me itch…Who are they really? Or does proton just source their design expertise from Lotus Designers??? Been giving me sleepless nights since forever…

Paul, I hope you still remember me….. Im the one " Xx- Ferrari -xX " here….. This new system is very much complicated….. I give-up my hope in trying to log-into this new system…. Im having damn hard time trying to figure out how to give comments …. Please switch back to the old system…. Im submitting this comment here through the system below where we need to type our name, e-mail add to send comments as a non-member, which is very annoying… To be honest, this new system is " VERY COOL " and sophisticated, but its very very complicated and not suitable for this forum….. Im sure many previous users would have found a hard time giving comment through this new system…. I do see many senior and frequent commenters here do missing in action in giving comment after this new system is implemented…. The old system is very convincing to use and far more better !!!!

As a senior user of this Paultan automotive forum, i hope you would consider many aspects about this new system on how convincing it is to the users compared to the previous ones….

As I understand from this new system's documentation, you only need to enter your info once and it will remember it? If you are not experiencing that please let me know, I will have to take note of it in my decision whether to keep this system or revert to the old one.

Yes Paul…. It does not remember my info for the next time…. Besides, at first i tried to login using my previous account info but cannot… I even used the method you mentioned to the user "Overflow" but still fails to login…. So, i signed up for the Intense debate again but it doesnt logs in as well…. So, its very annoying everytime we need to type in the NICKNAME and E-MAIL ADDRESS just TO LEAVE each COMMENT here…. It is undeniable to say this is much better conversation but it looks messy from my opinion, so i dont think so people will have the mood to read other user's comment including me like previously since it makes us feel bored…. And the User Nicknames should be bolded

….. I strongly prefer the previous system…. Its just so nice to read through all the user's comment in the previous system and then commenting them, unlike the current system which makes it look messy to read at…… I dont think so people will have the mood to read the comments one-by-one through this system including me… Im sure almost most of the users here still strongly prefers the old system…. Thats the reason why many famous and senior commentors here are missing in action in giving comments…. Hope you make the right decision Paul…. Im not saying that this new system is very bad, its indeed very nice, but its very much uncomfortable for us for this forum…. Hope you revert back to the old system Paul….

( Even long comments are not permitted in this new system….. The error message wants me to split the comments which would be very annoying…. Paul, please take note how people like sifu and prem3377 used to give such a nice long comments to us in their comment which is very informative…. ) Please Paul, I hope you would take note of it )…. HAIZZZ , even to send this splitted comment also need to type back my nickname and e-mail again… very annoying….

one more ting which is abit iritating , now there are pages within a link …previously all comments wer in one page where it was easy to access…bt now u have to 'flip' through the pages….might get used to it bt thn again why fix when not broken?! bt again it could be betewr sponser wise !

I'm with nabill. Having to "flip" through pages discourage me to read comments in other pages.

I think it is better to have all comments in one page, displayed chronologically like before. Arranging it based on activity is a bit too messy to me, as one pointed before, we might end up seeing most posts having "sex is like wine…" comments at the first page since there will always b ppl tempted to reply to his silly comments.

Try using this for the next 3 days as the new features are good in my opinion. I will do a poll and see if I should revert to the old system. I was thinking you can still post a comment the usual way so the new features are purely "opt-in", you don't have to use them if you don't want to.

Paul, the main problem is that when i'm typing in the textbox to post a comment, each character appears after a few seconds delay, very much longer you have to wait if you type fast, and the whole browser cant be scrolled until the text is done "appearing". Using firefox 2.0.0.20

And if i use the login box at the top, it doesn't allow me to sign in, either using just the id or my email – tried both. If this comment appears, then its because i'm using the login at the bottom of the page (Name, Email, Blog URL)

I just can't figure out which comment is early and which are later, top or bottom? Right now on the first page, the last comment at the bottom of the page says 18hours ago, the "first" comment at the beginning of the page says 17hours ago, but in the middle there are some 19hours, some 15hours, 20 hours and not in order, and those aren't the replies to the comments, just comments. Maybe it can be sorted by clicking "date" at the sort by:, but now it's bold at "Last Activity" Perhaps you could clarify to us how the comments are sorted.

I've set it so that the latest comment will always be first at the top so users don't have to scroll all the way down to see the latest comment. Also, the latest comment that has a reply to it will automatically be bumped to the top so that people won't miss comments. I hope you can see the logic of doing this, needs some getting used to but makes more sense, I hope?

As for your few seconds delay… I'm not experiencing it. It's just a regular text box… shouldn't have any delay.

The other thing is, the login database for this new comment system is different so you'll have to sign up again, sorry about that. I've bugged Intense Debate about importing user accounts but they said there is no such feature available at the moment. You'll only have to do it once, but if you malas you don't have to sign up to comment anymore. If I revert back to the old system, your old account will work again.

Don't revert to the old system, this is better but we just need some time to get the hang of it.

But about the comments with reply being put back on top, i foresee a problem here: What if a bad comment, or just a stupid one is made and everybody starts replying to that comment? Then that comment will always come back to the top, eventhough everybody hates that comment. Unless they resist the urge to reply to that comment. One ID comes to mind – the sex is fun ..wine guy. I hope the voting feature can hide nasty comments (like in youtube).

About the textbox issue, then it must be my slow computer if nobody else experiences this. But there is some kind of script on it right? Because the border highlights to green and the textbox height automatically increase as you type. Anyway I do have trouble with java and flash.

one more thing , if u jus browse through with ur eyes , the user name and the comments are nt much diference in terms of font size or the color , it wd be good if the user name is highlighted in big bold color , and thn the comments in standard fonts…at this moment…kinda hard to differnciate the username row and the comments box….using this system shows how simple and user friendly the previous one was…! and i cant seem to log in with my previous user name and password either…

Paul, well done. I like this methods. From this moment your pages will be more attractive and user friendly. Keep up the good work Paul. And, I can't use my old id to log in, even after trying the methods that you suggest.

the gap to fit the avatars, your name, thumnbs up/down banner thingy. Maybe the person who stars the thread has it, but those responding to it just have a thin banner of the person name replying to a comment.

WoW !!!! Im glad Paul….. I typed paultan.org and was rather happy to see the old commenting system back in action…. Its damn convincing…. I didnt even have to login just now to send this comment because it can remember me as long as it wants… So, we dont have the trouble to type in our user name and passsword everytime…. Glad Paul…. Im sure many users here would be very happy to see this old commenting system….

Intense Debate tech support is horrible and their comment import is very buggy, plus there are not enough features for a power user. I will have to think of some other way to implement the new features. Old comment system stays for now.

You can either post as a guest or have an option to register. Among the advantages of registering is once a name has been registered, a guest cannot post using that name. If you have an account, please login before commenting. If you wish to have a profile photo next to your name, register at Gravatar using the same e-mail address you use to comment.